Three Caribbean Entrepreneurs To Watch

Jamaican Dwayne Campbell, a software engineer, and founder of BookFusion.

By NAN Business Editor

News Americas, NEW YORK, NY, Fri. July 14, 2017: The Caribbean and Latin America make up a creative region full of talent and imagination, which according to a new E-book from the Inter-American Development Bank, are the regions’ most valuable assets. Three Caribbean entrepreneurs you should know according to the IDB’s new e-book “Orange Economy: Innovations you may not know were from Latin America and the Caribbean,” are:

Dwayne Campbell

Jamaican Dwayne Campbell, a software engineer, is among one of 50 outstanding innovators in the cultural and creative industries featured in the book.  He launched BookFusion in 2013. The goal was to create a platform for digital books that makes it possible for its users to read, share, organize, mark and synchronize their books in an online library.

The platform creates and distributes e-books that seek to redefine the reading experience, integrating audiovisual elements and multimedia tools for emerging markets. BookFusion also offers students access to a better form of reading that facilitates interactive learning with the purpose of retaining information. Users can access more than 30,000 books, navigate by title and libraries, share books they have read with friends and family or take out texts on loan.

The business was selected in 2016 as one of the most innovative startups by Demand Solutions Ideas for Improving Lives.

Ricardo Ariel Toribio & Natalia Ortega Gámez

Ricardo Ariel Toribio and Natalia Ortega Gámez from the Dominican Republic are the founders of Los Tejedores.

Ricardo Ariel Toribio and Natalia Ortega Gámez from the Dominican Republic are the founders of Los Tejedores, a line of hats and design products made using artisan weaving techniques.

The company was launched in 2015 and combines the tradition of weaving with natural materials and the novelty of modern design.

Groups of Dominican and Haitian artisans work together to create the highest quality of weaving and local designs at Los Tejedores, which seeks to broaden the context and visibility of artisanal work in Santo Domingo and Haiti.

Toribio is a musician and actor while Gámez is a designer and artist.

“Among the selected startups, we highlighted those that succeeded in bridging the analog and the digital realms, a key convergence for reinventing the entrepreneurship ecosystem and our cities, drawing from what communities need, their surrounding environment and leveraging our cultural heritage,” said IDB lead specialist Alejandra Luzardo, one of the authors.

The e-book compiles many of the examples exhibited in different editions of Demand Solutions: Ideas for Improving Lives, the IDB’s flagship initiative on creativity, innovation and entrepreneurship.